You are here: Home > 2013

Archive | 2013

Is is time to abandon lobbying and target voters directly?

By + on June 17, 2013 in Government, Politics, Public Affairs, social media

Today’s CITYA.M. carries an op-ed by communications consultant James Frayne. He argues that “It’s time for business to abandon lobbying and target voters directly”. The problem I’ve got with his argument is that actually that’s exactly what a lot of effective lobbying already does. When Oxfam was successfully campaigning for the global Arms Trade Treaty [...]

Read full story • Comments { 0 }

Welcome to the CIPR–together we are stronger than we are alone

By + on June 8, 2013 in CIPR, public relations

There’s an interesting debate in the comments of a guest post on CIPR president elect Stephen ‘Wadds’ Waddington’s blog. Alister Foye claims Wadds “is one cog in the engine of an oil tanker that has been on the wrong course for over a decade.” This is very much at odds with my experience as most [...]

Read full story • Comments { 0 }

Lies, damned lies trade unions and lobbyists

By + on June 4, 2013 in Business, Government, Politics, Public Affairs

Yesterday I tweeted that legislation made in haste, is rarely good legislation. It was only after that I discovered that indeed it appears the government is careering headlong down a path of disastrous legislation to regulate lobbyists. Unfortunately much of the media coverage and comments from ‘experts’ are simply spinning their own agenda or arguing [...]

Read full story • Comments { 1 }

Tom Foremski Thought Leaders event at the CIPR

By + on May 14, 2013 in CIPR, Conference Speaking, Content, corporate communications, Ethics, Journalism, Media, public relations, Reputation Management, SEO, social media

Last week I chaired a ‘Thought Leaders’ event at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) in London where I interviewed Tom Foremski who became the first major journalist to quit mainstream media to make a living from blogging when he left the Financial Times to found Silicon Valley Watcher. The event did leave me [...]

Read full story • Comments { 0 }

How PR can use Flipboard to create magazines

By + on May 14, 2013 in Content, corporate communications, Public Affairs, public relations, social media, Social Networks

Flipboard is one of the new generation of news readers that provide a slick app to let you subscribe to news and topics on media websites, blogs and other social media and social networks. The latest updates make it really easy to create your own magazine by curating interesting content that you find. There are [...]

Read full story • Comments { 6 }

Celebrate Europe Day today

By + on May 9, 2013 in Business, Politics

Today is Europe Day. The anniversary of the 1950 ‘Schuman Declaration’ that started the process that created what is now the European Union. The declaration was made by the then French foreign minister Robert Schuman in the aftermath of World War 2. This year it is more important than ever for patriotic Britons to celebrate [...]

Read full story • Comments { 0 }

CIPR president election for 2014

By + on May 8, 2013 in CIPR, corporate communications, Public Affairs, public relations, social media

The election for the 2014 president of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has sparked several fascinating debates on both public relations and the future and relevance of the CIPR. What is without question is that this time, in Dr Jon White and Stephen Waddington, we have two absolutely outstanding candidates for president. I [...]

Read full story • Comments { 1 }

UNICEF reminds people Facebook Likes don’t save lives

By + on May 2, 2013 in Measurement and Evaluation, Social Networks, Video

This video from UNICEF Sweden is a powerful reminder that Facebook Likes don’t really mean much, despite the obsession by some in the advertising and marketing business. In UNICEF’s case it quite literally tells us that Facebook Likes don’t save lives.         UNICEF Sweden Likes don’t save lives TV commercial Picture from [...]

Read full story • Comments { 1 }

UK spends 13 minutes of every hour on social

By + on April 25, 2013 in Infographic, Media, Research, social media, Social Networks

Even in 2013 you find sceptics who don’t appreciate how the internet and the social web is disrupting traditional media consumption. Experian Hitwise has just published research that shows in 2012 the UK spent 37 billion hours online, but as that is far too big a number to comprehend it has helpfully distilled it into [...]

Read full story • Comments { 0 }

White House signs-up to six second Vine videos

By + on April 25, 2013 in Politics, social media, Video

Since the launch a lot of the initial hype about Twitter’s six second Vine videos has thankfully died down. The latest to use Vine is the White House which has used it for the first time to promote the annual White House Science Fair. I was a sceptic at launch and remain so, but am [...]

Read full story • Comments { 0 }